Report : Wandering monk walks 15,000 km

Noted social activist Shri Sitaram Kedilaya is on Bharat Parikrama Yatra since August 9, 2012 from Kanyakumari. He has so far visited Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Chandigarh, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Tripura and now he is in Meghalaya since July 9, 2015. He has so far covered the distance of 15,000 km on foot. Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights. It is a touch of emotions, feelings and opinions, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living together.
Sitaramji was at Jorabat in Meghalaya on July 9. He narrated how he covered the entire North-East and had gone up to the Indo-China border. Furthermore, he got the privilege to pay obeisance at Parshuram Kund, a pilgrimage centre situated on the Brahmaputra Plateau in the lower reaches of the Lohit River and 21 kms north of Tezu in Lohit District of Arunachal Pradesh.

On query how the experience was throughout the journey, he said: “I experienced utmost love, affection and compassion. In the long journey of three years, despite facilities and amenities being made available to me, yet, I chose to use my God’s given feet and walked the entire distance. I did not starve or go hungry. I journeyed through all the states and covered the entire distance with wholehearted support of the people of Bharat. There are hundreds and thousands of incidents that I have experienced thro-ughout this journey.”
In the coming two years he would tour a further 10,000 km on foot covering the rest of Assam, Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and finally reach Kanyakumari.
At Jorabat, as a mark of respect, Meghalaya Gov-ernor Shri V Shanmuganathan  presented him with a Ryndia, a Meghalaya traditional shawl, sweets and a garland. There were a few hundred people present there eager to meet the wandering monk of our times.    n